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Hindu Nationalism

“It (is) not easy ... to draw a line between Hindu nationalism and true nationalism. The two overlap as India is the only home of Hindus and they form a majority there.” — J. Nehru in Glimpses of World History

Those who permit slaying of animals; those who bring animals for slaughter; those who slaughter; those who sell meat; those who purchase meat; those who prepare dishes out of meat; those who serve that meat and those who eat it are all murderers. — Manusmriti

Homos & Hinduism

National Shame!

Word of God?

When I think of all the harm the Bible has done, I despair of ever writing anything to equal it.” — Oscar Wilde

"Christianity is the most ridiculous, the most absurd and bloody religion that has ever infected the world." — Voltaire

"Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned, [and molested]: yet we have not advanced one inch towards humanity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half of the world fools, and the other half hypocrites. To support error and roguery all over the earth." — Thomas Jefferson

“One should remember that at the time of the book’s writing, theosophical stories of Jesus having learnt esoteric mysticism from India were very popular. Among its proponents were Russian painter Roerich and Paramahansa Yogananda, who believed in the legend that Jesus traveled to the East. Even as recent as in the 1980s, popular English magazines such as Illustrated Weekly of India and Mirror ran stories titled ‘Did Jesus die in Kashmir?’ and ‘Did Jesus really live?’” – Aravindan Neelakandan

The controversy surrounding the book Christ Parichay is a textbook case of suggestio falsi suppressio veri and the creation of a controversy where there is none. Written by Ganesh Savarkar (also called Baburao), brother of Veer Savarkar, Christ Parichay was published posthumously in 1946. The book is being republished today (26 February) by the Savarkar National Memorial—an organization which has no connection with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

The republication of Christ Parichay is part of a drive to republish all of Baburao’s works. Nonetheless, media reports have sought to associate the book with the RSS itself. In a report ostensibly aimed at inflaming Christian sentiments, Midday said, “Jesus Christ was a Tamil Hindu, claims RSS founder’s controversial book”. Despite clarification from the publisher that the book’s publication was only a part of the republication of Baburao’s works, the report portrays the views in the book as the official claims of the RSS.

One should remember that at the time of the book’s writing, theosophical stories of Jesus having learnt esoteric mysticism from India were very popular. Among its proponents were Russian painter Roerich and Paramahansa Yogananda, who believed in the legend that Jesus traveled to the East. Even as recent as in the 1980s, popular English magazines such as Illustrated Weekly of India and Mirror ran stories titled “Did Jesus die in Kashmir?” and “Did Jesus really live?”

Even today, these notions are popular, not only among a section of Hindus but also among assorted sections of theosophists and new-age groups. Many Ahmadiyya Muslims believe in the idea that Jesus came to Kashmir. BBC’s documentary director Richard Denton holds that, having survived the crucifixion, Jesus traveled east to Kashmir.

Further, one should also remember that the book was written at a time when dominant forces in colonial Indology were making outlandish claims that Krishna was a distorted myth of Jesus and that the Gita was influenced by the Gospels. But for the compelling inscription-based evidence that the Krishna tradition predated the Common Era, such a narrative would have even entered our textbooks.

To put things in perspective, let us consider this. John Bentley, a nineteenth century Indologist in his book, A Historical View of the Hindu Astronomy, written in 1825, stated that “the fabrication of the incarnation and birth of Krishna” was done by Brahmins because they “were sorely vexed at the progress Christianity was making, and fearing, if not stopped in time, they would lose all their influence and emoluments”.

Today, we know that this is completely wrong and that Krishna worship predated the Common Era by centuries. But in 2013, Cambridge University Press reprinted the book as part of its practice of reissuing of out-of-print titles. None portrayed the views in the book as the official stand of Cambridge University, nor did tabloids report that Cambridge published a book which claims that Krishna was a fabrication by Brahmins to counter Christianity.

The reports surrounding Christ Parichay have also revealed the lack of knowledge regarding Indian society. In an effort to paint the book as “Brahminical”, the reports repeatedly stated that the author made Jesus a ‘Tam-Brahm’. In reality, the book claimed that Jesus was a “Viswakarma Brahmin“.

This claim is interesting for historical reasons. For many decades, Viswakarmasand Orthodox Brahmins had a dispute. Viswakarmas include artisans, sculptors and goldsmiths and Orthodox Brahmins vehemently opposed their rights to sacred thread. Litigation wars raged in colonial courts over the issue. In this context, Baburao’s claim that Jesus was a ‘Viswakarma Brahmin’ who had a sacred thread ceremony has significant connotations. Baburao was totally wrong about Jesus. But he was essentially siding with the artisan community against the orthodoxy.

Interestingly, as late as in 2010, a Biblical scholar Dr Adam Bradford made a claim which sounds close to, but is different from, the one made by Baburao in 1946. Bradford claims that Jesus was a socially privileged architect or a tekton—a claim also made by Baburao.

Of course, there is no credible evidence backing any of these claims regarding Jesus. The claims only reveal a craving from fringe Christians in the West and a section of Hindus in India to place Jesus within Eastern traditions. Any right thinking person would have understood that the republishing of this book can serve no propaganda and at best only serves academic interest over how a section of Hindus perceived Jesus.

Neither the RSS nor any Hindu organization had ever propagated these views even when they were written. M. S. Golwalkar, the second chief of the RSS, for example, called Jesus “a great seer” who had “sublime thoughts”, and attributed the spread of Christianity to apostles being “fired with the spirit of Christ”.

Again, historical documents prove that Golwalkar was wrong. Author Jonathan Kirsch meticulously showed in his work, God against the Gods,that the spread of Christianity was brought about by a dangerous cocktail of fanatical evangelism and the political opportunities that monotheism provided to Roman rulers.

The point to be noted is that the RSS never officially promulgated Baburao’s views on Christ. In fact, one of the very first English books eulogizing the RSS was written by a Catholic priest in Kerala, Anthony Elenjimittam. Elenjimittam was a Gandhian who incidentally also coined one of the more popular terms in Indian politics, ‘pseudo-secularism’.

The RSS, on its part, continues to have dialogue with various Christian groups and never gets into theological debates over Christianity. In 2002, the then RSS chief K. S. Sudarshan participated in the RSS-Christian Perspective Meet, held by the Indian Institute of Christian Studies.

There are sections among Hindu nationalists who do not agree with this approach of the RSS. Most notable among them are those belonging to the Sita Ram Goel school. Goel’s harsh criticism of Jesus Christ as an “artifice for aggression” still sets the ideological framework for this school of Hindutvaites who negate Jesus completely. The Hindu nationalist approaches to Jesus and Christianity, therefore, are varied and not monolithic. They are only united in their opposition to forced and organized conversions.

Hence, the controversy surrounding the book written by Babarao Savarkar in 1946 is nothing but a psychological and communal hoax played on the nation. There are other really serious communal forces at work which use similar unfounded theories. Baburao could be forgiven perhaps, taking into account his era and the fact that he did not aim to make his views a basis for converting Christians to Hinduism. But what about forces that work today with a communal agenda, having a sophisticated institutional mechanism and claiming that “India is a Christian Nation”?

The book India is a Christian Nationrepeats the outdated pseudo-scientific Aryan invasion theory and then claims that Dravidians are the natives of India. Then, it quotes Father Heras who claimed that they were “Hamitic”. It also claims that Abraham was a Dravidian, thus effectively making Jesus a Dravidian descendant.

The book was written in 2003 and since then has been republished several times. Far from being discredited, the book has been endorsed by some of the highest authorities of Indian churches, including Catholic Bishop Rev Dr Lawrence Pius of Chennai, Bishop Ezra Sargunam of Evangelical Church of India and Dr John Samuel of Institute of Asian Studies. What makes the book even more dangerous to communal harmony is the fact that it also carries an appendix on the so-called “Secret Circular of RSS”, a hate-hoax modeled after the TheProtocols of the Elders of Zion. Yet, the book is endorsed by Christian authorities cutting across denominations.

It is time that we stopped peddling half-truths and started looking at the overall picture in an unbiased manner. That is the least that they can do to really boost secularism in India. – Swarajya, 26 February 2016

» Aravindan Neelakandan has a master’s degree in Psychology from Madras University and Economics from Madurai Kamaraj University. He is the co-author of the book Breaking India.

6 Responses

The stand of the RSS vis a vis christianity has been quite funny. The RSS seems to have no problem with the church as long as it carries a fig-leaf of “nationalism”. Circa 2005 we had met Sadhu Rangarajan (SR) on some issue. He runs the Bharata Mata Mandir in Bangalore. The conversation veered around to the issue of Jesus in India and SR seemed to approve of the myth. We tried to reason out with him as to why holding on to such a myth will jeopardize the Hindu cause. But he was simply too adamant to make a course correction. He gave us a bizarre explanation that such a story will help him convert many people in Africa to “Hinduism” (Jesus in India = reverence for India among the already christian Africans, ergo the possibility of Africans being used as future cannon fodder). He used to travel quite often to Africa those days.

When one cannot think clearly, one starts thinking of himself as a master strategist underestimating the inveterate determination, slick cunning and humongous resources of the enemy.

We knew Rangarajan very well when we lived in Chennai. Some of his articles are on this site and are quite good (including a passionate defence of the RSS). But we stopped publishing him when he sent us his Jesus-in-India piece some years ago. Our reply to him regarding that article was published by Ranjeev Srinivasan and is available HERE. For Rangarajan’s article on Jesus-in-India published on Sulekha, click his photo above.

The truth is that the Jesus-in-India tale is eagerly repeated by many Hindus whom the public and media associate with the RSS. There are also persons within the RSS community itself who promote the tale. And there are sympathizers and apologists close to the RSS like Sadhu Rangarajan who make it their special business to sell the Jesus-in-India story to unsuspecting Hindus when they are abroad.

1. I am happy to be here in this historic town of Kodungaloor today to inaugurate the Muziris Heritage Project, being implemented by the Tourism Department of the Government of Kerala, with the support of the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India.

2. If Kerala is God’s own country, Kodungaloor is the town where the Gods gather in unity and harmony. This town and its surroundings have been a thriving centre of Islam, Christianity, Judaism as well as Hinduism. It is heartening to know that the ancient Kurumba Bhagavati temple and the Cheraman mosque, believed to be the oldest mosque in India, are both in Kodungalloor. The two synagogues in Paravur and Chennamangalam, the historical precinct of Kottayil Kovilakam and the Kottapppuram fort with its links to the Portuguese, the Dutch and the Mysore Sultans are also in the neighbourhood. Kodungaloor is also believed to be the place where the Apostle of Jesus Christ, St. Thomas, landed bringing with him Christianity to India much before it reached Europe. …

Unquote

Pranab Mukherjee is a senior Congress politician who got the president’s chair as a boon for faithful service to the Dynasty.

He is not a stupid man and knows very well that St Thomas did not come to India. He also knows that Christianity reached Europe in the 40s CE, at least a decade before it could have reached India (assuming Thomas did bring it in 52 CE). But as a Congress politician he finds it expedient to repeat the dubious tale in his address at the inauguration of the Muziris Heritage Project in Kodungaloor on Feb. 26, 2016.

President Mukherjee is doing vote bank politics. Kerala will be going to the polls at the end of May 2016 and it has a large Christian population that supports the Congress party.

It is very unfortunate for the Indian people that they must suffer this garrulous, politically-biased president at least for a while longer.

Ramanasramam’s Christian Inmates

Tolerance

If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them. — Karl Popper

Jesus: An Artifice for Aggression

So, science is really faith-based—is it?

“The difference between people with scientific beliefs and those with religious beliefs,” says prominent biochemist Rupert Sheldrake, “is that most religious believers are aware that their position is based on faith. People who put their faith in scientific materialism are often unaware that their beliefs are beliefs at all.”